Cleombrotus; and many more too long,
Embryos and ideots, eremites and friars
White, black, and grey, with all their trumpery.
Here pilgrims roam, that stray'd so far to seek
In Golgotha, him dead, who lives in Heaven;
And they who to be sure of Paradise

Dying put on the weeds of Dominic,
Or in Franciscan think to pass disguis'd;
They pass the planets seven, and pass the fix'd,
And that crystallin sphere whose balance weighs
The trepidation talk'd, and that first mov'd;
And now Saint Peter at Heaven's wicket seems
To wait them with his keys, and now at foot
Of Heaven's ascent they lift their feet, when lo,
A violent cross wind from either coast

Blows them transverse, ten thousand leagues awry
Into the devious air; then might ye see

Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, toss'd
And flutter'd into rags; then reliques, beads,
Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls,

The sport of winds: all these upwhirl'd aloft
Fly o'er the backside of the world far off
Into a Limbo large and broad, since call'd

The Paradise of fools, to few unknown

Long after, now unpeopled, and untrod.

All this dark globe the Fiend found as he pass'd,
And long he wander'd, till at last a gleam
Of dawning light turn'd thither-ward in haste
His travell'd steps; far distant he descries.
Ascending by degrees magnificent

Up to the wall of Heaven, a structure high,
At top whereof, but far more rich, appear'd
The work as of a kingly palace gate,
With frontispiece of diamond and gold
Embellish'd, thick with sparkling orient gems
The portal shone, inimitable on earth
By model, or by shading pencil drawn..
The stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw
Angels ascending and descending, bands
Of guardians bright, when he from Esau fled
To Padan-Aram in the field of Luz,
Dreaming by night under the open sky,

And waking cry'd, This is the gate of Heaven.
Each stair mysteriously was meant, nor stood
There always, but drawn up to Heaven sometimes
Viewless, and underneath a bright sea flow'd

Of jasper, or of liquid pearl, whereon

Who after came from earth, sailing arriv'd,
Wafted by Angels, or flew o'er the lake

Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds.
The stairs were then let down, whether to dare
The Fiend by easy ascent, or aggravate
His sad exclusion from the doors of bliss:
Direct against which open'd from beneath,
Just o'er the blissful seat of Paradise,

A passage down to the earth, a passage wide,
Wider by far than that of after-times
Over Mount Zion, and, though that were large,
Over the Promis'd Land, to God so dear,

By which, to visit oft those happy tribes,

On high behests his Angels to and fro

Pass'd frequent, and his eye with choice regard
From Paneas the fount of Jordan's flood

To Beersaba, where the Holy Land

Borders on Egypt and the Arabian shore;

So wide the opening seem'd, where bounds were set
To darkness, such as bound the ocean wave.
Satan from hence now on the lower stair
That scal'd by steps of gold to Heaven gate,

Looks down with wonder at the sudden view
Of all this world at once. As when a scout
Through dark and desart ways with peril gone
All night; at last by break of cheerful dawn
Obtains the brow of some high-climbing hill,
Which to his eye discovers unaware
The goodly prospect of some foreign land
First seen, or some renown'd metropolis
With glistering spires and pinnacles adorn'd,
Which now the rising sun gilds with his beams:
Such wonder seis'd, though after Heaven seen,
The Spirit malign, but much more envy seis'd
At sight of all this world beheld so fair.

Round he surveys, (and well might, where he stood
So high above the circling canopy

Of Night's extended shade ;) from eastern point
Of Libra to the fleecy star that bears
Andromeda far off Atlantic seas

Beyond the horizon; then from pole to pole
He views in breadth, and without longer pause
Down right into the world's first region throws
His flight precipitant, and winds with ease
Through the pure marble air his oblique way

Amongst innumerable stars, that shone

Stars distant, but nigh hand seem'd other worlds;
Or other worlds they seem'd, or happy iles,
Like those Hesperian gardens fam'd of old,
Fortunate fields, and groves, and flowery vales,
Thrice happy iles, but who dwelt happy there
He stay'd not to enquire: above them all
The golden sun in splendor likest Heaven
Allur'd his eye: thither his course he bends
Through the calm firmament; (but up or down,
By centre, or eccentric, hard to tell,
Or longitude,) where the great luminary
Aloof the vulgar constellations thick,

That from his lordly eye keep distance due,
Dispenses light from far; they as they move
Their starry dance in numbers that compute
Days, months, and years, towards his all-cheering lamp
Turn swift their various motions, or are turn'd
By his magnetic beam, that gently warms
The universe, and to each inward part
With gentle penetration, though unseen,
Shoots invisible vertue even to the deep:
So wondrously was set his station bright.